


The perks of not having an umbrella

by Vic394



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Chatting in the rain, F/M, I Don't Even Know, I have no regrets whatsoever, I swear there are puns somewhere, Rumbelle - Freeform, There should also be a plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:13:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6705733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vic394/pseuds/Vic394
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Belle finds herself completely alone in the rain... Until she's not alone anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The perks of not having an umbrella

**Author's Note:**

> Title is temporary, I guess, I'm still thinking about a better one, but I have no idea at all.  
> Anyway, first Rumbelle fic and I'm so excited! Hope you'll like it, see you at the bottom.

The bus stop was deserted when Belle reached it. She paced back and forth for a while, then abruptly stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

She couldn’t tell when the next bus would arrive; she had no watch or phone with her. She barely remembered to take her purse with her before storming out of the apartment.

So she just stood there and waited.

* * *

 

 

_Belle didn’t feel like working on a Sunday. So she just decided to close the library sooner than her usual, go home and relax a bit._

_It wasn’t even that late, she thought, looking at the wall clock. She reached for her phone to text Gaston… Only to see that said phone was dead, no battery at all._

_“Oh well, forget it. It’ll be a surprise.” She smiled at herself and exited the library._

 

* * *

 

Given the big, grey clouds filling the sky, she should have expected rain to come at some point. Still, when the first drops reached her, she let out a light gasp.

She didn’t have anything to protect her from the water, and she mentally pictured the colorful umbrella lying next to her door…

Well, for what it was worth, she hadn’t the slightest intention to go back there.

Thinking about it, Belle had no idea where to go or what to do in the near future. She figured she would just jump on the first bus and go, well… Somewhere.

 

* * *

 

_She entered the little apartment she and Gaston shared, and headed for the kitchen. Where she found something downright unexpected._

_Standing in front of the open fridge, there was a naked girl. Well, to be fair, she wasn’t exactly naked: she was wearing one of Gaston’s shirts. And yeah, that was even worse._

_The stranger went pale and started to blurt out meaningless apologies, but Belle wasn’t even listening._

* * *

 

 

Maybe Ruby would have let her stay at her place for a couple of days, Belle hoped.

She knew it was rude to invite herself there like that, but she had no other choice available at the moment.

For now, she just kept waiting, careless of the tears that had started to mix with the pouring rain. She hugged herself tight as a whiff of cold wind sent shivers down her spine.

 

* * *

 

_Attired from the commotion, Gaston entered the kitchen and started to make up excuses once he realized the mess he was in. Belle wanted to scream and shout at him, and she did for a moment, even though she knew it was pointless. So she ended up kicking him in the nuts before running away from that place._

* * *

 

So now there she was, crying and soaking wet in the middle of an empty street, waiting for a bus that was nowhere to be seen.

And the rain was getting heavier.

Strange thing was that Belle couldn’t feel the water reaching her anymore. She lifted her gaze to acknowledge the big, black umbrella above her head.

Belle winced and turned to her left. Standing beside her, there was a silent man she could swear she’d never seen before. He was older than her for good measure, as proven by silver strain in his hair, but he looked particularly sophisticated in his black suit and light brown scarf.

“I’m sorry.” He eventually said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Belle did her best to recollect herself before answering.

“It’s- it’s fine.” She cracked. “Thank you for, you know.” She gestured ad the umbrella.

“Oh, it’s no problem, dearie.” The stranger shrugged. “I’m afraid you’re still going to catch a cold, though.”

Belle was suddenly fully aware of her wet hair and the fact that her blue dress was sticking to her skin. The man was damn right. Still, a cold was the least of her problems right now.

“Yeah, I can live with that.” She hugged herself tighter. “It’s Belle, by the way.” She reached out to shake his hand, but he didn’t move an inch. It was then that Belle noticed: the hand that wasn’t holding the umbrella was resting on an elegant walking stick.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice-“ she frantically blurted out. He gave her a little, reassuring smile.

“It’s okay, dearie. I’m Gold, but call me Robert if you prefer.” He offered.

Belle realized she had already heard that name somewhere, on the news or something. If she wasn’t wrong, he was an affirmed lawyer, the one who followed the case of the custody of the mayor’s adopted child.

Belle didn’t remember much more than that.

“So” started Gold “What’s a young woman like you doing here alone in the rain?”

Belle stiffened.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” She almost snapped. He just nodded and looked away. It took less than a second for Belle to regret being so rude.

“Forgive me, I might still be a little upset.”

“It’s okay. It really is none of my business. Sometimes I just like to look around for gossip.” He smiled and Belle followed.

Well, there was nothing wrong with talking about her life with a stranger the she would positively never see again, she figured.

“It’ the same old story: you make it back home earlier and you find him with another woman.” She sighed.

“Cheating: tale as old as time.” Said Gold without looking at her.

Belle watched him in shock until he lowered his gaze to meet hers.

“All I’m saying, cheating is the most common thing in this world; it happened to me too once, you know. Still, you don’t seem to be the kind of girl who goes for ‘common’.” He observed.

“And you don’t seem the kind of man who just shares his umbrella with random people.” She pointed out.

“Touché.” He conceded.

Belle giggled.

“I don’t know, we probably would have broke up sooner or later; it’s not like we were all that deep in love or something, it was just… I think we were still together out of habit more than anything.” She realized how lame that sounded.

“It’s sad, but if there was a way to put an end to it, I just wish it wasn’t _that_ one.”

“And that I perfectly understand.” Admitted Gold. “If it makes you feel any better, my wife abandoned me and my son to go after a weird pirate-boy.” He shrugged.

“A pirate?”

“He worked for some kind of cruise ship company, the bastard.” Gold explained. Belle did her best not to laugh, but couldn’t help the giggles.

On and on they went, talking about nothing and everything, getting to know each other as time passed by.

“And now look at us: here we are, two strangers under the same umbrella waiting for a bus that’s taking forever to come and-“ Belle was interrupted by the sound of Gold’s laughter.

“What?” she liked the man, but why in the world was he laughing at her?

“Oh, dearie. I take it no one told you about the strike.”

Belle just stared at nothing in particular.

She had no boyfriend, no place to go, no telephone and now? A bus strike. That was by far her worst day ever.

Well, at least she had someone to talk to for the last… actually, she had no idea how much time had passed since Gold… Robert arrived.

“But why were you here, then?” She was curious to say the least.

“I was just taking a walk. I like it when it rains, it’s relaxing. When I saw you here, though, I needed to do something. As a gentleman, I couldn’t leave you alone in the rain, could I?” He actually _winked_ at Belle, then smiled in a way she found downright fascinating.

“It would have been too bad.” She joked, hoping not to blush as she talked.

It took a bit for them both to realize it wasn’t raining anymore. What they _did_ realize was how close they’d got to each other, their bodies almost touching under the big umbrella. When awkwardness started to take over, Belle took a little step back. She felt like she had to say something, she just had no idea what.

“I suppose I should…” She stuttered. Gold came to her aid.

“You definitely should go get yourself something warm. A good cup of tea would do the magic.” He said, closing his umbrella. He hanged it on his arm and reached out to finally shake her hand. She was happy to accomplish and, for some reason, she didn’t want to let it go.

What she didn’t notice was that Gold seemed as reluctant as her.

“So goodbye, Belle.” He said after a bit. “It was a pleasure to meet you. And good luck with your incoming cold.”

“Thank you.” She answered while he was already starting to walk away.

“Wait!” Belle almost ran after him. Gold turned to face her again.

“There’s a cafeteria not too far from here; Granny makes the best hot chocolate in the world… Maybe you’d like to try a sip.” She proposed.

Gold stared at her for a couple of seconds, then gave her a soft smile.

“That sounds lovely.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there!  
> Okay, so... I went through some weird crap these days, and I needed to do something about it. Writing was the best option.  
> Luckily (or not) I'm currently watching season two of ouat for the first time and I've been drowning in Rumbelle since forever... You figure out the rest.  
> Will there be a sequel? Probably not, but you can never say never.  
> I know my english is not perfect, I'm trying, so if you'd like to report any kind of mistake feel absolutely free to do so!  
> On the bright side, I think I'm going to translate this in italian and post it once I'll have some spare time. The hard part will be figuring out a name that could suit italian Tremotino (I like it better than Rumpelstiltskin, it's easier to write and pronounce). Maybe I'll stick with Robert, I don't know.  
> Thank you for reading this and I hope to see you soon!


End file.
